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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Many a times, i have strolled past this food outlet opposite Changi Village hawker centre that had two striking banners hanging from the awning; one claiming to be the number one mee rebus and the other declaring the traditional Malaccan roots of its chendol.

I could not help but wonder how often the word "traditional" has been misused by many food operators in their crusade to drive up sales. Frankly, i usually snub at such claims. As i mentioned before, authentic food doesn't really translate into better food.

Whatever the case, i decided to take up the opportunity to check out the shop, named aptly as Cendol Melaka, when i visited Changi Village yesterday. The first thing that caught my attention was this gigantic container holding the item i called "green worms" when i was (much) younger.

Now, i know it is the ingredient that gives cendol its name although in the tastes buds of many, gula melaka always plays a much bigger role that outshines the rest of the ingredients.

At first glance, this bowl of chendol failed to appeal in the visual category; too much coconut milk, too little gula melaka on the surface and shaved ice that wasn't smooth and powdery enough.

I gave it a few stirs. Alright, the thick layer of gula melaka was all hidden at the bottom! Took a full scoop in my mouth and my conclusion was swift; wasn't very sweet and definitely not as addictive as the original gula melaka in Malacca.

What caught me by surprise, however, were the seemingly homemade "green worms"! They were not the tasteless strips of jelly i had been feed with for the last few decades and were in fact terribly palatable with traces of the alkaline flavour similar to kee zhang (鹼水粽)!